Transforming identities: Accounting professionals and the transition to motherhood

This paper investigates the relationship between the experience of motherhood and employment within the UK accounting profession, by examining the oral history narratives of a small group of accountants who have recently become mothers and returned to work. Drawing from contemporary theories on identity, it considers how individuals make sense of the different social identities of accountant and mother, and to what extent social, institutional and cultural factors shape and restrict the ways in which the self is experienced. It also explores the implications for both the self and the accounting profession of interconnections and juxtapositions between the ostensibly private sphere of the home and the public sphere of employment. It suggests that as the identities of mother and accountant are entwined, they undertake a process of redefinition and transformation of the self.     

Profitability of the CRISMA System: From World Indices to the Hong Kong Stock Market

Many studies show that the use of technical analysis can generate excess returns. We test the “CRISMA” technical trading rule introduced by [Pruitt and White J. Portfolio Managt. Spring, 1988, 55–58] on global equity indices and common stocks in Hong Kong. Out study shows that no excess returns could be found in indices except those in Asia. This validates the claims that the Asian stock markets are not as efficient as other stock markets and hence can be exploited by technical analysis. How does CRISMA perform on common stocks in Hong Kong? Generally speaking, CRISMA does not fair better than the buy and hold strategy. Further analysis reveals excess returns for stocks with very large turnover. This is consistent with other recent research on CRISMA conducted on US and UK stock markets. We also amend part of the original CRISMA rules to yield better performance: shrinking the moving average window sizes can increase both the number of trade signals and the excess returns. Therefore CRISMA can be made to work with some judicious choice of parameters, depending on the turnover.     

Explaining the Younger– Older Worker Union Density Gap: Evidence from New Zealand

This paper uses two recent large‐scale surveys in New Zealand to test the various reasons given for lower rates of union membership among younger workers. Younger workers’ disproportionate location in smaller workplaces and those industries where union reach is lowest accounts for a substantial part of their lower union density. Along with the tendency of younger workers to explore their options through labour turnover, this factor offers a much better explanation for the younger‐older worker union density gap than do assertions about a growth in individualism in Generations X and Y.     

Timing of apology after service failure: the moderating role of future interaction expectation on customer satisfaction

Marketing Letters - When there is a service failure, it is often believed that employees should immediately apologize to customers before hearing their complaints. However, we argue that in certain...     

The impact of market actions on firm reputation

Drawing on signaling theory, we hypothesize that a firm's reputation is shaped by its own market actions and the actions of its industry rivals. We view market actions as signals that convey information about the underlying competencies of firms and influence stakeholder evaluations of them. We find that the total number of a firm's market actions, the complexity of its action repertoire, the time lag in rivals' responses to its actions, and the similarity of its repertoire with those of its rivals positively affect its reputation. These results suggest that a firm's reputation is influenced both by its own actions and by its rivals' actions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spectral analysis as a tool for model discrimination: An application to international capital movements

Empirical discrimination between ‘stock’ and ‘flow’ formulations of international investment based on regression tests has consistently proved unsuccessful. By applying the new technique of model discrimination in the frequency domain, this note provides unequivocal empirical support for the stock model.     

CHILD POVERTY IN CANADA

The evolution of measured poverty may reflect socio-economic developments, particular measurement choices or the effect (or lack of effect) of policy initiatives. We report a "case study" of child poverty in Canada between 1986 and 2000, a period when the elimination of child poverty was a stated policy goal, but reported child poverty rates did not change significantly. We find that the apparent persistence of child poverty in Canada is remarkably robust to measurement choices, and cannot easily be explained by socioeconomic developments.     

The response of fertility to the expectations of death: implications for the demographic transition

The authors present an economic explanation for the first stage of events often experienced by a society entering the demographic transition, namely, declining death rates coupled with high or rising birth rates. The explanation is based on the response of fertility to the expectation of child death and on a distinction between actual and desired family size